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Director and subject of DARK MONEY

Forever Pure

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Israel|2016|87 minutes|Maya Zinshtein

The addition of two Muslim players to a Jerusalem soccer team leads to a calamitous clash with the club's extreme-right-wing fan base in investigative journalist Maya Zinshtein's troubling cautionary tale of nationalism and mob mentality.

Sunday, June 4, 2017

Beitar Jersalem is the most popular―and most controversial―soccer team in Israel, long associated with the conservative Likud political party and the only club in the Israeli Premier League never to sign an Arab player. They are equally well known for a prominent supporters’ group, La Familia, notorious for anti-Arab chants and banners that read “Forever Pure"—fans who pride themselves on being the most racist in the league. When Arcadi Gaydamak, the team’s Russian billionaire owner, hires two Chechen Muslim players in the middle of the 2012-13 season, it sparks a calamitous battle between the team leadership and its extreme-right-wing fan base. Maya Zinshtein captures this battle, including amazing interviews with all concerned―from the fans themselves to team management to the mothers of the Chechen players. The result is a troubling tale of nationalism and mob mentality in Israel—but with a special significance for the U.S., where hate speech and hate crimes are on the rise.

Director Biography

Russian producer and director Maya Zinshtein's debut feature film, Forever Pure, has already won numerous awards, including the Haggiag Award, the Lia van Leer Award (Honorable Mention), and the van Leer Group Foundation Award at the Jerusalem Film Festival. She was nominated for the Gold Hugo Award and the Golden Eye Award at the Chicago International Film Festival and the Zurich Film Festival, respectively.

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